New rules target fire hazards in urban villages

NEW regulations were introduced in Futian District on Friday in a bid to ensure fire safety in rental apartments in urban villages, the Daily Sunshine reported yesterday.

A meeting highlighting the fire-control work in urban villages in Futian District was held Friday morning. On the same day, new regulations that stipulate 10 must-do things for landlords or supervisors of rental apartments in the district’s urban villages took effect.

According to the regulations, landlords should ensure the accessibility of fire-control passageways in rental apartments and equip the apartments with gas alarms, leakage protectors, dry powder extinguishers, flashlights, fireproof masks and smoke detectors. The landlords should also offer at least one fire safety training to tenants before they move into the rental apartments.

Currently, there are 27 urban villages in Futian District, in which over 540,000 people are living in 230,000 rental apartments. Fire safety is a prominent problem in urban villages because of the closely packed buildings and insufficient firefighting facilities.

Fire-control irregularities are commonly seen in urban villages. Some landlords illegally divide one rental apartment into several smaller ones or block fire passageways. Some tenants use poor-quality gas cookers and illegally or inappropriately spliced electrical wires, and don’t have any firefighting equipment.

In a bid to root out the fire hazards in urban villages, the Futian government introduced the 10 must-do regulations to clarify the responsibilities of landlords or supervisors of rental apartments in urban villages. The Futian police has also launched an operation to check fire-control irregularities across the district this year.

The collective joint-stock companies in urban villages, which are responsible for the management of such villages, will sign letters of commitment with landlords in the villages to ensure the rectification of irregularities. The Futian police require that 90 percent of landlords in urban villages sign the letters by Sept. 30 and 90 percent of rental apartments be rectified by Oct. 30. (Zhang Yang)